Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir
Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Bwazir's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 440. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1980, in Howra, Yemen. As of September 17, 2010, Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir has been held at Guantanamo for eight years four months. Combatant Status Review Tribunal s were usually held in a trailer.]] Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Allegations During the winter and spring of 2005 the Department of Defense complied with a Freedom of Information Act request, and released five files that contained 507 memoranda which each summarized the allegations against a single detainee. These memos, entitled "Summary of Evidence" were prepared for the detainee's Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's names and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of these memos, when they were first released in 2005. But some of them contain notations in pen. 169 of the memos bear a hand-written notation specifying the detainee's ID number. One of the memos had a notation specifying Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's detainee ID.Summary of Evidence (.pdf) prepared for Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's Combatant Status Review Tribunals - October 12, 2004 - page 46 The allegations Bwazir would have faced, during his Tribunal, were: Witness The Tribunal's President ruled that Mamar Diann's testimony would be relevant. But a November 9, 2004 request to the State Department to request the cooperation of the Yemen Government did not generate a reply, so the Tribunal's President ruled Mamar Diann "not reasonably available".detainees ARB|Set_19_1561-1605.pdf#25}} Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 25-30 Testimony Bwazir chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.detainees ARB|ARB_Transcript_Set_6_20255-20496.pdf#170}} Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 170-184 - December 10, 2005 Enemy Combatant Election Form Mohamed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's Assisting Military Officer told his Board that he learned he was on a hunger strike on December 5, 2005, when a guard was accompanying him to their first meeting. Mohamed Ali Abdullah Bwazir told his Assisting Military Officer that he did not think it would matter what he said during his hearing because he felt he had been prejudged. His Assisting Military Officer told the Board he had assured Mohamed Ali Abdullah Bwazir that the ARB was a fair proceeding. His Assisting Military Officer's notes record Mohamed Ali Abdullah Bwazir's demeanor as "...very cordial, attentive, but very skeptical of the ARB based on his experience with the CSRT. Torture Mohamed Ali Abdullah Bwazir told his Board that he had been tortured while in detention. His Presiding Officer asked the Assisting Military Officer to note the allegation of torture and ''"...take the appropriate action." Hunger strike The Washington Post reports that Bawazir's lawyers assert that Bawazir was one of the hunger strikers, and that the new harsher procedures camp authorities instituted to break te hunger strike violated last fall's proscription on torture.Guantanamo Force-Feeding Tactics Are Called Torture, Washington Post, February 28, 2006 Camp authorities have been force-feeding hunger strikers. In January 2006 camp authorities started using "restraint chairs" to feed detainees.First Violation of McCain Torture Amendment Alleged in Emergency Injunction , Common Dreams, February 28, 2006 The Center for Constitutional Rights quoted from the emergency injunction Bawazir's lawyers filed on his behalf, in reaction to what they described as the unnecessary violence of his force-feeding in the restraint chair:First Violation of McCain Torture Amendment Alleged in Emergency Injunction: Attorneys File to End Further Torture of Guantánamo Detainee on Hunger Strike, Center for Constitutional Rights, February 27, 2006 * Forcibly strapped Mr. Bawazir into a restraint chair, tying his legs, arms, head, and midsection to the chair. * Inserted of a feeding tube that was larger than the tube that had previously been left in Mr. Bawazir's nose, increasing the pain of the insertion and extraction. * Poured four bottles of water into his stomach through the nasal gastric tube every time he was fed even though Mr. Bawazir has never refused to drink water by mouth. * Restrained Mr. Bawazir in the chair for extended periods at each feeding. * Denied Mr. Bawazir access to a toilet while he was restrained and then for an additional hour or more after he was released from the chair. * Placed Mr. Bawazir in solitary confinement. Medical records show Bawazir's weight had dropped to 97 pounds, during the 140 days of his hunger strike.Gitmo Prisoner Says Strikers Force-Fed, ABC News, February 9, 2006 Medical records show Bawazir was restrained in the chair longer than the manufacturer's directions. Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin asserted that the force-feedings were conducted humanely. He explained the extraordinary duration of the detainee's confinement to the restraint chair was due to the length of time the force-feeding took. U.S. government lawyers argued that the bans on torture and cruel and unusual treatment didn't apply to captives in Guantánamo Bay.U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban: McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison, Washington Post, March 3, 2006 Justice Gladys Kessler called the allegations "extremely disturbing". On February 11, 2009 US District Court judge Gladys Kessler declined to bar the use of restraint chairs for force-feeding Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bawazir and Omar Khamis Bin Hamdoon. mirror Kessler's noted that Bawazir and Hamdoon petition stated that the use of the restraint chair was "tantamount to torture". But she stated the opinion that because she lacked the medical expertise to evaluate the position of the camp's medical authorities she lacked jurisdiction to rule on the petition. According to the Agence France Presse Bawazir and Hamdoon were not opposed to being force fed. According to the Agence France Presse camp authorities are withholding medical treatment for their other ailments from the hunger strikers, in an attempt to pressure them to quit their strike. See also *Hunger strike *Mohammed Al-Adahi v. George W. Bush References External links * Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Two: Captured in Afghanistan (2001) Andy Worthington, September 17, 2010 *Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir: Allegations of Abuse Category:People held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Category:Yemeni extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Living people Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:1980 births